The American Church in Crisis: Groundbreaking Research Based on a National Database of Over 200,000 Churches
Groundbreaking research based on a national database of over 200,000 churches shows that the overall United States population is growing faster than the church. The director of the American Church Research Project, Dave Olson, has worked to analyze church attendance, showing that it is virtually unchanged from fifteen years ago while our population has grown by fifty-two million people.
What does this mean for you, your church, and the future of Christianity in North America? The American Church in Crisis offers unprecedented access to data that helps you understand the state of the church today. "We live in a world that is post-Christian, postmodern, and multiethnic, whether we realize it or not," says the author. This book not only gives a realistic picture that confirms hunches and explodes myths, but it provides insight into how the church must change to reach a new and changed world with the hope of the gospel.
Readers will find a richly textured mosaic with optimistic and challenging stories. Charts, diagrams, and worksheets provide church leaders and motivated church members with a stimulating read that will provoke much discussion. Questions for discussion accompany the chapters.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars comprehensive look @ the church
It was refeshing reading research beyond Barna. Though Olson said the same stuff Barna would have…the American institutional church is in serious trouble. Olson seemed to be a little more broad and deep. Instead of relying solely on his own data, as Barna would, he brought in other sources and gave a comprehensive look at the church.
I loved the pro church planting perspective. American churches need to plant 2,900 churches a year just to keep pace with the growth in population (p 181).
5 Stars Incredible Resource
This book is filled with much needed data. However, he does move beyond data to reflection and what should be done. I highly recommend this book. You can draw your own conclusions from the data. He does move from fact to opinion – in terms of how to apply the information. I don't know I'd agree with all his conclusions, but you can't argue with the graphs!
5 Stars Great analysis, helpful responses, and easy-to-read for Church leaders
This book does an excellent job of bridging a well-researched assessment of the Church in America, with practical responses that the Church must make in order to fulfill the mission of the Kingdom of God.
Olson approaches the reality of an American Church in decline with love and respect for the Body of Christ; while he gives church leaders a loud wake up call, he also offers hope by prescribing that the Church focus on the message and mission of Jesus. As a church-planting leader and pastor, he is committed to growing churches and transforming lives. He holds true to that goal while shaking up the comfortable status quo that much of the American church has settled into.
Pastors & denominational leaders of both mainline and Evangelical churches, particularly those in urban and 1st and 2nd ring suburban churches, should read this book. It will also be helpful for any established church that wishes to remain alive and healthy for at least one more generation.
3 Stars Troubling methodological problems
There is a troubling lack of clarity on methodological issues in Olson's book. Olson's conclusion that the church in the United States is in crisis and that this can be shown with quantitative data differs from what other sociologists of religion are saying (See below). Olson writes, "In reality the church in America is not booming. It is in crisis. On any given Sunday, the vast majority of Americans are absent from church. Even more troublesome, as the American population continues to grow, the church falls further and further behind. If trends continue, by 2050 the percentage of Americans attending church will be half the 1990 figure" (page 16).
Olson's data seems rather to lead to a more modest claim: Based on the data that Olson has assembled from various denominational offices, there are some worrisome trends while there are also some encouraging trends about church attendance in the US; the limitations of Olson's data precludes sweeping generalizations about Christianity in the US. He is correct though that some churches and denominations are facing declines in attendance. His ideas for stemming that decline are welcome.
Stanley Presser and Mark Chaves sum up in the following quote what a number of sociologists of religion have concluded about the American church. "Yet, existing evidence does not definitively establish whether attendance at religious services declined in American society from the 1950s to the present. We examine the trend in religious service attendance between 1990 and 2006. Evidence from several sources converges on the same answer: weekly attendance at religious services has been stable since 1990. However one reads the evidence about trends between World War II and 1990, the recent past has been a time of stability."
Stanley Presser and Mark Chaves, "Is Religious Service Attendance Declining?" Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 46 (2007): 417.
See also the following books by academic sociologists who essentially agree with the conclusion of Presser and Chaves.
What Americans Really Believe Pages 12-17.
Pillars of Faith: American Congregations and Their Partners Page 1.
Beyond Megachurch Myths: What We Can Learn from America's Largest Churches (J-B Leadership Network Series) Page 4.
God's Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations (Pulpit & Pew) Page 38.
After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion Page 51.
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